Detailed Action
The office action is in response to the communications filed on 09/16/2024.
Notice of AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims Status
Claims 1-20 are pending in this application.
Prior Art Made of Record
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Lee et al. (Publication No. US 2016/0013898), the prior art discloses identifying a first channel state information (CSI) configuration with a first channel measurement information and a first interference measurement information; identifying a second CSI configuration with a second channel measurement information and a second interference measurement information, wherein the first CSI information is configured as a reference CSI configuration for the second CSI configuration; see abstract.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 11, 13-14, and 20 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koteshwar et al. (Publication No. US 2023/0055959, hereinafter referred as Koteshwar) in view of Xue et al. (Publication No. US 2023/0413253, hereinafter referred as Xue).
Regarding claim 1, Koteshwar discloses generating, for transmission to a user equipment (UE), a Channel State Information (CSI) configuration for a first component carrier (CC) and a second CC of a carrier aggregation (CA) scheme (The base station (BS) [apparatus] may have a set of component carriers (CCs) [first CC& second CC] configured for each of a plurality of user devices [UE]; see ¶ 51.);
processing, based on signaling received from the UE, CSI information for the first CC (The BS receive channel state information (CSI) for the primary component carrier (PCC) [first CC]; see figure 2 step 22 & ¶ 53.);
determining information for the second CC based on the CSI information for the first CC (The CSI for PCC contain information [determined information] relating to other channels [second CC] that are similar, wherein the information enable the identification of a similar channel such as a second component carrier (SCC); see figure 2 step 24 & ¶ 54.); and
generating, for transmission to the UE, information for the second CC based on the information for the second CC (Re-use the configuration [generated information] of the PCC on the SSC based on the CSI information of the PCC [determined information]; see figure 2 step 26.).
Koteshwar discloses the configuration of the SSC based on the measurement of the PCC, but fails to explicitly disclose that the determined information for the second CC is CSI information, or that the generated information for the second CC is scheduling information. However, in analogous art, Xue discloses a network device sends a CSI-RS to a terminal, where the CSI-RS is used for the terminal to perform channel state measurement, wherein the terminal performs measurement based on the CSI-RS to obtain a channel state information report (CSI report), and reports the channel state information report to the network device, and wherein the network device may perform scheduling, beam management, and/or the like based on the CSI report reported by the terminal; see ¶ 65. Furthermore, the channel state information report includes channel state information of the first frequency domain resource [first CC] and the channel state information of the second frequency domain resource [second CC]; see ¶ 7. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Koteshwar with the reporting mechanism of Xue in order to ensure performance of the channel.
Regarding claim 11, Koteshwar discloses, as modified in claim 1, that the scheduling information for the second CC comprises a downlink (DL) grant indicating time and frequency resources on which the UE is to receive data. However, in analogous art, Xue discloses a network device sends a CSI-RS to a terminal, where the CSI-RS is used for the terminal to perform channel state measurement, wherein the terminal performs measurement based on the CSI-RS to obtain a channel state information report (CSI report), and reports the channel state information report to the network device, and wherein the network device may perform scheduling, beam management, and/or the like based on the CSI report reported by the terminal; see ¶ 65. Furthermore, the channel state information report includes channel state information of the first frequency domain resource [first CC] and the channel state information of the second frequency domain resource [second CC]; see ¶ 7. It is inherent that the scheduling information comprises time and frequency resources. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Koteshwar with the reporting mechanism of Xue in order to ensure performance of the channel.
Regarding claims 13 and 20, Koteshwar discloses, as modified in claim 1, that the first CC comprises a primary component carrier (PCC) (The BS receive channel state information (CSI) for the primary component carrier (PCC) [first CC]; see figure 2 step 22 & ¶ 53) or
a first secondary component carrier (SCC) and the second CC comprises the PCC, the first SCC or a second SCC (This limitation is claimed in the alternative form. As a result, the limitation has not been considered as part of the broadest reasonable interpretation.).
Regarding claim 14, Koteshwar discloses that based on signaling received from a base station, a Channel State Information (CSI) configuration for a first component carrier (CC) and a second CC of a carrier aggregation (CA) scheme (The base station (BS) may have a set of component carriers (CCs) [first CC& second CC] configured for the user devices [apparatus]; see ¶ 51.);
determine, based on measurements of CSI reference signals (CSI-RS), CSI information for the first CC;
determine information for the second CC based on the CSI information for the first CC; and
generate, for transmission to the base station, one or more messages comprising the CSI information for the first CC and the CSI information for the second CC (The BS receive, from the UE, a channel state information (CSI) for the primary component carrier (PCC) [first CC]; see figure 2 step 22 & ¶ 53. The CSI for PCC contain information [determined information] relating to other channels [second CC] that are similar, wherein the information enable the identification of a similar channel such as a second component carrier (SCC); see figure 2 step 24 & ¶ 54.).
Koteshwar discloses the configuration of the SSC based on the measurement of the PCC, but fails to explicitly disclose that the determined information for the second CC is CSI information. However, in analogous art, Xue discloses a network device sends a CSI-RS to a terminal, where the CSI-RS is used for the terminal to perform channel state measurement, wherein the terminal performs measurement based on the CSI-RS to obtain a channel state information report (CSI report), and reports the channel state information report to the network device, and wherein the network device may perform scheduling, beam management, and/or the like based on the CSI report reported by the terminal; see ¶ 65. Furthermore, the channel state information report includes channel state information of the first frequency domain resource [first CC] and the channel state information of the second frequency domain resource [second CC]; see ¶ 7. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Koteshwar with the reporting mechanism of Xue in order to ensure performance of the channel.
Claims 2-8, 12, and 15-19 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koteshwar et al. (Publication No. US 2023/0055959, hereinafter referred as Koteshwar) in view of Xue et al. (Publication No. US 2023/0413253, hereinafter referred as Xue) and further in view of Li et al. (Publication No. US 2023/0053143, hereinafter referred as Li ).
Regarding claims 2 and 15, Koteshwar discloses, as modified in claim 1, determining the configuration of the SSC based on the measurement of the PCC, but fails to explicitly disclose determining a difference between a frequency of the first CC and a frequency of the second CC is less than a predetermined threshold. However, in analogous art, Li discloses that the relationship between the carriers includes that the frequency domain synchronization information of different carriers is the same, or a difference between frequency domain synchronization information of different carriers is less than a threshold; see ¶ 202. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Koteshwar with the relationship mechanism of Li in order to reduce communication overheads between the terminal device and the network device when the primary component carrier and the secondary component carrier meet a certain (e.g. frequency, measured value, or CSI value) relationship; see ¶ 220.
Regarding claim 3, Koteshwar, as modified in claim 2, discloses determining the configuration of the SSC based on the measurement of the PCC, but fails to explicitly disclose that the CSI information for the second CC comprises a Rank Indicator (RI), a Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI) or a Channel Quality Indicator (CQI). However, in analogous art, Li discloses that CSI values of different downlink carriers are the same, or a difference between CSI values of different downlink carriers is less than a threshold, the terminal device may use the CSI value of the primary component carrier for the secondary component, so it can skip the measurement of the CSI-RS of the secondary component; see figure 2 step 207 & ¶ 220. The CSI values includes and CSI includes but is not limited to one or more of the following: a CQI, a PMI, an RI; see ¶ 204. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Koteshwar with the relationship mechanism of Li in order to reduce communication overheads between the terminal device and the network device when the primary component carrier and the secondary component carrier meet a certain (e.g. frequency, measured value, or CSI value) relationship; see ¶ 220.
Regarding claims 4 and 16, Koteshwar, as modified in claim 3, discloses determining the configuration of the SSC based on the measurement of the PCC, but fails to explicitly disclose that a value of the RI of the second CC comprises a same value as an RI of the first CC, a value of the PMI of the second CC comprises a same value as a PMI of the first CC or a value of the CQI of the second CC comprises a same value as a CQI of the first CC. However, in analogous art, Li discloses that CSI values of different downlink carriers are the same, or a difference between CSI values of different downlink carriers is less than a threshold, the terminal device may use the CSI value of the primary component carrier for the secondary component, so it can skip the measurement of the CSI-RS of the secondary component; see figure 2 step 207 & ¶ 220. The CSI values includes and CSI includes but is not limited to one or more of the following: a CQI, a PMI, an RI; see ¶ 204. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Koteshwar with the relationship mechanism of Li in order to reduce communication overheads between the terminal device and the network device when the primary component carrier and the secondary component carrier meet a certain (e.g. frequency, measured value, or CSI value) relationship; see ¶ 220.
Regarding claims 5 and 17, Koteshwar, as modified in claim 1, discloses determining the configuration of the SSC based on the measurement of the PCC, but fails to explicitly disclose “determining a difference …”. However, in analogous art, Li discloses determining a difference between a frequency of the first CC and a frequency of the second CC is less than a first predetermined threshold (The relationship between the carriers includes that the frequency domain synchronization information of different carriers is the same, or a difference between frequency domain synchronization information of different carriers is less than a threshold; see ¶ 202.) or
less than a second predetermined threshold, wherein the second predetermined threshold has a value greater than the first predetermined threshold (This limitation is claimed in the alternative form. As a result, the limitation has not been considered as part of the broadest reasonable interpretation.). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Koteshwar with the relationship mechanism of Li in order to reduce communication overheads between the terminal device and the network device when the primary component carrier and the secondary component carrier meet a certain (e.g. frequency, measured value, or CSI value) relationship; see ¶ 220.
Regarding claim 6, Koteshwar, as modified in claim 5, discloses determining the configuration of the SSC based on the measurement of the PCC, but fails to explicitly disclose that “the CSI information for the second CC comprises a Rank Indicator (RI), a Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI) or a Channel Quality Indicator (CQI)”. However, in analogous art, Li discloses that the CSI values of different downlink carriers are the same, or a difference between CSI values of different downlink carriers is less than a threshold, the terminal device may use the CSI value of the primary component carrier for the secondary component, so it can skip the measurement of the CSI-RS of the secondary component; see figure 2 step 207 & ¶ 220. The CSI values includes and CSI includes but is not limited to one or more of the following: a CQI, a PMI, an RI; see ¶ 204. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Koteshwar with the relationship mechanism of Li in order to reduce communication overheads between the terminal device and the network device when the primary component carrier and the secondary component carrier meet a certain (e.g. frequency, measured value, or CSI value) relationship; see ¶ 220.
Regarding claims 7 and 18, Koteshwar, as modified in claim 6, discloses determining the configuration of the SSC based on the measurement of the PCC, but fails to explicitly disclose that when the frequency of the first CC and the frequency of the second CC is less than the first predetermined threshold, a value of the RI of the second CC comprises a same value as an RI of the first CC, a value of the PMI of the second CC comprises a same value as a PMI of the first CC or a value of the CQI of the second CC comprises a same value as a CQI of the first CC. However, in analogous art, Li discloses that the relationship between the carriers includes that the frequency domain synchronization information of different carriers is the same, or a difference between frequency domain synchronization information of different carriers is less than a threshold; see ¶ 202. Furthermore, CSI values of different downlink carriers are the same, or a difference between CSI values of different downlink carriers is less than a threshold, the terminal device may use the CSI value of the primary component carrier for the secondary component, so it can skip the measurement of the CSI-RS of the secondary component; see figure 2 step 207 & ¶ 220. The CSI values includes and CSI includes but is not limited to one or more of the following: a CQI, a PMI, an RI; see ¶ 204. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Koteshwar with the relationship mechanism of Li in order to reduce communication overheads between the terminal device and the network device when the primary component carrier and the secondary component carrier meet a certain (e.g. frequency, measured value, or CSI value) relationship; see ¶ 220.
Regarding claims 8 and 19, this limitation is associated with an optional limitation of claim 5, wherein the optional limitation was no considered as part of the broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI) because recite the language “or less than a second predetermined threshold” in alternative form. As a result, the limitation has not been considered as part of the broadest reasonable interpretation.
Regarding claim 12, Koteshwar, as modified in claim 1, discloses determining the configuration of the SSC based on the measurement of the PCC, but fails to explicitly disclose that the first CC and the second CC are within a same frequency band. However, in analogous art, Li discloses that the relationship between the carriers includes that the frequency domain synchronization information of different carriers is the same, or a difference between frequency domain synchronization information of different carriers is less than a threshold; see ¶ 202. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Koteshwar with the relationship mechanism of Li in order to reduce communication overheads between the terminal device and the network device when the primary component carrier and the secondary component carrier meet a certain (e.g. frequency, measured value, or CSI value) relationship; see ¶ 220.
Claims 9-10 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koteshwar et al. (Publication No. US 2023/0055959, hereinafter referred as Koteshwar) in view of Xue et al. (Publication No. US 2023/0413253, hereinafter referred as Xue), and further in view of Liu et al. (Publication No. US 2018/0288755, hereinafter referred as Liu).
Regarding claim 9, Koteshwar, as modified in claim 1, discloses determining the configuration of the SSC based on the measurement of the PCC, but fails to explicitly disclose that the CSI configuration for the first CC comprises a first periodicity for transmission of CSI-reference signals (CSI-RS) on the first CC and the CSI configuration for the second CC comprises a second periodicity for transmission of CSI-RS on the second CC, wherein the second periodicity is longer than the first periodicity. However, in analogous art, Liu discloses CSI-RSs for carrier 1 and carrier 2 may have different periodicities or densities; see ¶ 83. For example, a CSI-RS for carrier 1 may have a longer periodicity than a CSI-RS for carrier 2; see ¶ 83. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Koteshwar with the periodicity mechanism of Liu in order to significantly reduce detection overhead by not detecting a receive beam in the carrier from scratch.
Regarding claim 10, Koteshwar discloses determining the configuration of the SSC based on the measurement of the PCC, but fails to explicitly disclose that based on signaling received from the UE, second CSI information for the second CC based on measurements of the CSI-RS transmitted on the second CC; and generate, for transmission to the UE, second scheduling information for the second CC based on the second CSI information for the second CC. However, in analogous art, Xue discloses a network device sends a CSI-RS to a terminal, where the CSI-RS is used for the terminal to perform channel state measurement, wherein the terminal performs measurement based on the CSI-RS to obtain a channel state information report (CSI report), and reports the channel state information report to the network device, and wherein the network device may perform scheduling, beam management, and/or the like based on the CSI report reported by the terminal; see ¶ 65. Furthermore, the channel state information report includes channel state information of the first frequency domain resource [first CC] and the channel state information of the second frequency domain resource [second CC]; see ¶ 7. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Koteshwar with the reporting mechanism of Xue in order to ensure performance of the channel.
Conclusion
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/H.R/Examiner, Art Unit 2472
/KEVIN T BATES/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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